He Left His MNC Job To Bring Grass Root Changes In The Village Through Education

Once planted in mind, a notion can be resilient and highly contagious. After an idea has taken hold of in the brain, it’s almost impossible to eradicate it from our subconscious. An idea that is fully formed fully understood sticks in there somewhere. We all have such thoughts stirring in our wits, waiting for the time to get revealed. Udbodh is a corporeal form of such thoughts which was in my mind for many years.

The Inspiration for Udbodh

To describe the array of such ideas which took birth as Udbodh, I introduce you to a guy named Rohit. Tall, long bouffant hair, witty, brisk, a loudmouth with a smile that could melt the toughest of hearts. If I could recall one situation which portrays his company and wit, it would be the one when we were on a pursuit of finding “Bhindo”, my grandmother’s beloved buffalo. We used to leave the cattle in an open field named “oljha” in Masauli, allow them to gaze and come back after a while to take them home. But that day we were unable to find Bhindo. Fear of her getting lost or hit by a train engulfed me.

We all were around 12-14 years of age and were nervous, but Rohit came up with a tracking plan. He immediately climbed the tallest tree and looked around for her. We already did that and thought it’s a futile attempt, but he was looking for something else. He came down and said with a beaming smile “Bhindo is in Chanda ka Purwa “, which is a neighbouring village about 3 km from us.

We were puzzled about how he managed to comprehend that. He then explained that he observed the orientation of the sugarcane fields. There were tracks of an animal passing through the fields as we navigated through them following his lead. After a quest of about 3 hours, we located Bhindo caught by a farmer whose fields she damaged. Again, with Rohit’s wit and persuasion we were able to bring Bhindo back without paying for the cost of the damages.

This is just one of the many incidents from our time growing up that illustrates Rohit’s presence of mind, persuasive skills, charm. He was a problem solver and a born leader, and that in a way became his undoing. I used to visit Masauli for summer vacation every year, and Rohit was my go to guy. On one such visit to Masauli, I found out that he took a decision that changed his life. He dropped out of school in class 8.

His teachers in primary school didn’t teach him well, and as he was naughty, so they used to shun him out. I could see an obvious pain and helplessness in him. He migrated to Mumbai and did some odd jobs, but his inner streak for power and leadership forced him to erase the line of morality. And he crossed boundaries from where he couldn’t turn back. Today, I feel sorry for his life choices. Last I know from two years ago, he was in a Jail and the village had disowned him.

The Inception

Thoughts of Rohit gave me sleepless nights. I wonder how his path would have been if he had the same education as me. To get answers to such questions, I left my job at TCS and joined Teach For India, an organisation that envisions excellent education for all children in India. I taught 45 underprivileged girls in Sangam Vihar, Delhi. This experience was profound and gave me the confidence that I could do something similar on my own. I believed that if positive people come together, things can be done. After long conversations with people in Masauli, friends and family we were able to form a team that believed in the uplifting rural areas through education.

We named our initiative “Udbodh” which means realising one’s true potential. Behind this is a belief that if Rohit had realised his true potential, as a society, we would have gone further. Today elementary education has a bad shape in Uttar Pradesh. Nearly 60% of children in fifth grade can’t read a text from grade two, according to Annual Status of Education Report. 80% of elementary education is in rural areas in UP. Therefore, rural education upliftment needs serious attention.

– Author : Anadi Shukla, founder of Udbodh.As a Teach For India fellow, he taught 55 girls for two years. He also ran a life skills center for women, called Gubbare.

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Know Why This Small Town In Tamil Nadu Is In The Guinness Book Of World Records

Did you know there is a town at the southern tip of India that can be called ‘Heaven on Earth’. Its people realise the importance of keeping the environment clean.

Madukkarai Panchayat in Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu, is the cleanest place in India, owing to around 50 women who wake up every day to collect waste from each and every household in the town. At 6 AM, the women set out to work with their green jackets on, hands covered in gloves and caps adjusted perfectly on their heads. Every morning they line up for the roll call. These ‘Green Friends’ are part of the solid waste management program supported by ACC Cement – Madukkarai.

Madukkarai, a small town at the tip of the country, is in the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest recycling lesson in the world. With the help of around 50 women, who are now called ‘Green Friends’, and a simple, scalable model, this town is leading the way for efficient waste management. #SwachhBharat

While most of us find someone to put the blame on, Madukkarai decided to take control in their own hands. The town has 8,000 households and a population of 42,000. 82% of the homes hand over garbage to ‘Green Friends’ every day. 1,440 tonnes of garbage is collected annually from the town of 18 wards and 107 streets.

There is a lot that we can learn from Madukkarai. One of the most disturbing realities that we face, despite which part of the country we reside in, is the similar dirt everywhere – garbage piled up on roadside, drains clogged with plastic bags and dogs chewing on the leftover food we have callously thrown on the streets.

We keep our homes clean; make sure that the floors are mopped every day. But why do we not share the same sentiment for our surroundings? We hardly realize that the street outside our home is as much ours as is anybody else’s. We are the ones who use these roads every day to commute. Madukkarai realized this and the importance of a clean environment for our health and well-being.

Guinness Book of World Records for the largest recycling lesson in the world

‘Green Friends’ collect household wastes in eight different bins for wet waste, kitchen waste, plastic waste, etc. This is then disposed in large bins kept in several parts of the town. Trucks pick up this waste daily and take it to the resource recovery park where the garbage is recycled.

The treatment center segregates the different types of wastes. The kitchen waste is converted into fertilizers and given to farmers at extremely low prices to use in cultivation of their crops. The plastic waste is processed to be used in the construction of roads, and also at the large ACC factory where it is used as fuel at high temperatures which does not even cause pollution.

Due to the efforts of ‘Green Friends’, the citizens of Madukkarai, and the municipality, there has been a 60% reduction in landfill waste over the span of three years. There has also been a 50% reduction in the vehicle movement to the landfill sites, 85% of organic waste is converted successfully into vermin compost, ample reduction in the use of fossil fuels, reduction in greenhouse gas emission to 60%, and substantial decrease in the spread of malaria and dengue among the people. Furthermore, barren lands provided for compost yard have been successfully converted into fully functional organic compost yard and non-recyclable waste is used as an alternative energy source for the cement industry.

Madukkarai’s citizens have also become more environment-friendly, with 30% of the households segregating the organic-recyclable waste at home.

What we can learn

Madukkarai has paved the way to the sustainable development of our world. They have shown us that is not impossible to keep our environment clean. All we need is to inculcate in us a concern for mother Earth. It is commendable that ACC is supporting Madukkarai in its venture and helping it stay clean.

We, as citizens of other towns, cities, villages and states in India, have a lot to learn from Madukkarai. We too can have a healthier life if only we care enough and practice our civil duties proudly.